General Information

Program Description

The department's goal is to provide students with background, experience, and opportunities for the study of primate behavior, ecology, genetics, morphology, systematics, and evolution. The department offers opportunities for fieldwork in behavior, ecology, genetics and genomics, cognition, and paleontology and a broad range of facilities for the study of functional and evolutionary morphology of primates and other mammals. Faculty conduct field research in Africa, Madagascar, South America, Central America, and Asia and on captive, free-ranging primates at the Duke University Lemur Center. The Lemur Center houses the world's largest collection of captive prosimian primates. The Lemur Center and departmental laboratories contain extensive collections of fossils and casts for the study of human and primate evolution. Other departmental facilities include opportunities for experimental studies of bone-muscle systems, comparative anatomy and embryology, morphometrics, and computer modeling of anatomy.